


A Different Sound

by TheUniqueLee



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allurance mentioned, Brief Alcohol Mention, Fluff, M/M, PTSD, brief brief the thing is only so many words anyway, brief war flashbacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-17 05:41:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17554451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheUniqueLee/pseuds/TheUniqueLee
Summary: War changes a person. The beauty of fireworks become lost to the sound of gunfire. But sometimes, someone gives you a different kind of beauty to replace it.





	A Different Sound

The light, not the noise, is what told him the fireworks had started. The colors flashing neon against the window panes drew his attention away from his phone. He'd been reading a book, one that had come out years ago, long before the war, long before them leaving earth, long before even the Garrison. He had been trying to get his hands on the book for so long he had forgotten that he had wanted to read it. But seeing it the other day on the shelf of a store brought the want back to the surface. He had bought the digital copy the same day.

He stood and watched the fireworks, the reds, and the blues streaking across the sky and taking new shapes and form, and hated that such a beautiful sight left him feeling bittersweet. He looked down at the flute glass in his hand, watching the colors dance off the champagne inside. It was a small and fantastical world trapped in the little glass. Trapped in the molecules and reflection of the non-alcoholic drink. 

It wasn't the first time and it wouldn't be the last time that the effects of the war would take some part of life from him. It had been years, the length of his hair, halfway down his back, showed the slow passage of time better then his face had. And yet no matter how much time had passed, no matter how calm things were now, the loud noises, the loud bangs, the sound of metal scraping against metal, always suddenly threw him back into the past. Back into combat. Back into training. Back into the trying to save lives.

He wasn't able to drink anymore. Getting anywhere past tipsy resulted in him losing time. He had let himself get wild once, drank the beer and the shots and the cups on cups of whatever Lance put in his face to celebrate the man's engagement to Allura and found himself fighting off Hunk at the end of the night. His brain had told him the faded purple light's of the club were the lowlights of a Galra ship. That he was on the Galra ship. The music, loud and blaring suddenly turned into alarms ringing in his ears. Voices loud and distorted became orders. Became his team relaying that they were in trouble. 

And Hunk, well Hunk ended up grabbing his shoulder, just to be friendly, just to find out why he was acting so strange. And in the haze of the alcohol ridden flashback, he had tossed Hunk partway across the room. Lance had yelled at him and Coran had tried to hold him back and Hunk had laid on the ground, no fear in his eyes. Instead, he spoke in that calm gently way that only Hunk could speak in, telling the others to back off. Trying to calm him down. Trying to make him remember where he was. 

He did eventually and once he had seen the damage he had caused, once he had seen the cut on Hunk's head, he had run. He had run and run and run until his lungs burned and his legs no longer felt attached but still, he kept running even then. He didn't know then where he was running to but when he found himself outside of Shiro's apartment building he realized what he wanted. 

He had stood out there for only a few minutes, debating on whether he should bother Shiro when instead the man himself opened the door. Jacket on with keys in hand and phone to his ear when he looked and saw Keith standing there. He told the person on the phone, Lance, that Keith was there and that yeah, he would take care of him. 

Keith had let himself be ushered inside and the two of them had just cuddled on Shiro's couch, Shiro petting Keith's hair and Keith breathing in the scent of Shiro's soap and aftershave as a way to calm down. Eventually, Keith had fallen asleep and had woken up in Shiro's bed. 

After tea and breakfast, Shiro took Keith to his psychiatrist and Keith set up appointments. It had taken less the 4 appointments to hear the words he hadn't wanted to hear. Kolivan and Krolia were kind, they told him to take time away from the relief effort. Hunk took his apology, the other man knew Keith hadn't meant to hurt him. Lance was serious for once when Keith had told the others. That was probably what made it the most real for Keith. 

Pidge had been the one to send him information to help and Shiro made sure he went to all of his appointments. Krolia came down more often. Kolivan stopped by sometimes as well. The MFE pilots came to see him and the Holts brought BaeBae over to play with Kosmo, though Keith though it was just their way of checking in on him and parenting him. For Colleen especially. 

He closed his eyes and turned away from the sight of the fireworks ready to drown his sorrows in his drink when he saw Shiro standing there. He was dressed in a hoodie and jeans and a pair of oversized headphones on. Unlike Keith, he didn't feel a sense of shame at the illness. Shiro was stronger than that and instead just informed people that the sudden noise made him think of the war and that the war was something he could no longer handle. 

Keith hated the regret and guilt he felt when he heard Shiro speak about such things. Regret that he couldn't say it and guilt for thinking even for a moment that it was easy for Shiro to say it. 

Shiro reached out and took Keith's hand before lightly tugging on it. Keith pulled at the fingers, playing in a way, trying to get Shiro to trip up and fall into him. Instead, Shiro stayed planted firm and just smirked at Keith's antics. Keith rolled his eyes before following alongside Shiro. They walked into the house, Hunk joked it was just a few floors short a being a palace, and Shiro continued leading Keith somewhere. 

Allura had wanted a simple earth lifestyle and Lance had instead insisted on treating her like a princess. As paladins of Voltron, they received a monetary lump sum from the government for their hard work in protecting the earth. As the leaders of the Voltron coalition, they received trade and goods as they helped all around the galaxies. Lance was smart with money, something Keith had never expected, and the other man had soon found a way to continue the money trickling in. 

He had easily made himself a millionaire before the others or his family had ever known what had happened. He set his family up and then proceeded to do everything he could to give Allura everything she wanted. That included a nice, big house out in the country, surrounded by fields of her favorite juniper flowers. 

Shiro pulled them into a room, flicking on the light as they went in. He pushed Keith towards a couch and Keith smiled as he realized what was happening. On the table in front of the couch were some of Keith's favorite snack foods and his favorite pop along with those feel-good kid movies Shiro liked. Shiro intended for them to spend the night watching movies and eating junk. 

Shiro tapped his shoulder and Keith saw that he removed his headphones, his prosthetic arm carrying them over to a table across the room. He mimicked pulling something from his ears and Keith realized Shiro wanted him to remove his earplugs. he hesitated, fear flittering over his spine before realizing that Shiro wouldn't ask him to do something that would put either of them in a hard place. Shiro was more proud of Keith's recovery and progress than anyone else. 

Keith took a moment to breathe and ready himself for the sound of the exploding fireworks before taking his earplugs out. But he found as he removed them he couldn't hear the fireworks. He looked around wondering why and he must have had a confused look on his face because Shiro smiled at him.

"It's Veronica's cave. She comes in to get away from everyone else sometimes. She told me we could borrow it for the night since she knew neither of us handle fireworks and canons easy anymore."

"And you decided we should-"

"Watch a bunch of good movies and eat the snacks that hurt your old timer teeth."

"Never going to let that go will you?" Keith asked sitting down on the couch and grabbing a handful of chocolate candies.

"Absolutely not," Shiro told him sitting down with him and getting a handful of popcorn before turning the TV on. As Shiro started to change the channels to get to the movie screen, Keith leaned into him and nuzzled his shoulder.

"Hey, Shiro." 

The other hummed around his mouth of popcorn.

"Thanks for this. I mean it."

"Always Keith. " 

Shiro told him before hitting play on the movie and settling into the couch. Shiro leaned back against the arm and Keith easily laid down in his arms and the two stayed like that, occasionally grabbing food and feeding themselves and each other. Alone in their own little world, where for just a few hours nothing could harm them. 

  


**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to follow me on my [tumblr](https://uniqueleewritten.tumblr.com/) or on my [twitter](https://twitter.com/TheUniqueLee) and feel free to check out my other stuff as well on my [carrd](https://theuniquelee.carrd.co/)


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